The Popish Plot - History Learning Site Home » Stuart England » The Popish Plot The Popish Plot Citation: C N Trueman "The Popish Plot" historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, 17 Mar 2015. 16 Aug 2016. The Popish Plot of 1678 was the result of the fertile mind of Titus Oates. In fact, no Popish Plot existed but the circumstances within the country at the time resulted in many listening to what Oates had to say. Titus Oates was a renegade who had joined the Church after Cambridge University but was dismissed from his post for drunken blasphemy. He became the chaplain for a Royal Naval ship, the ‘Adventurer’, but he was dismissed from this as well for sodomy. To get some elevation in society after his fall from grace, it seems that Oates discovered a plot to kill the king – what became known as the ‘Popish Plot’. This was a plot ‘uncovered’ by Oates after he managed to infiltrate Jesuits based in London. The plan was to kill the king, Charles II, and replace him with his Catholic brother James.

Then thousands of Protestants would be killed in a blood bath. It was all nonsense – the invention of a fertile if warped mind – but events at the time conspired to assist Oates. In 1666 many Londoners had blamed the Catholics for the Great Fire – so blaming the Catholics was not new. London was also in the grip of an economic depression and many were unemployed. Catholics became a convenient scapegoat who could be blamed for just about anything. Oates gave, under oath, an account of what he had found out from the Jesuits. This account was made to a magistrate called Sir Edmund Geoffrey. He was found murdered in London a while after Oates had given his statement. This only served to heighten tension as many blamed the Catholics for taking their revenge out on a man who was only doing his job. In September, Oates named many Catholics as being part of the conspiracy. Charles II treated his claims with huge scepticism but Parliament latched on to them and argued that they should be investigated. Oates was given a state apartment in Whitehall and an annual allowance of £1,200.

He also gained much credibility when one of the first names he gave – Edward Coleman – was found to be in treasonable communication with the French. This played into the hands of Oates and ‘proved’ that his claims were true. Coleman had been a secretary to the Catholic Duke of York. To many in London, Oates’ story seemed to make perfect sense. Known Catholics were ordered to leave London and many Protestants in the city openly carried weapons to defend themselves against the impending Catholic ‘onslaught’. This hysteria played into the hands of Oates and only served to elevate his status in London. Oates continued with his campaign. He accused five leading Catholic lords of treason. This was greeted with laughter by Charles II. The king personally questioned Oates and found many large discrepancies in his story. Oates upped his story by accusing the queen and the royal doctor of plotting to poison Charles. The king was not willing to accept such nonsense and ordered the arrest of Oates. However, he was saved by Parliament such was the paranoia he had created. Unwilling to take on Parliament, Charles agreed not to proceed with the arrest.

By the end of 1678, Parliament had passed two acts that forbade Catholics from being members of both the Commons and the Lords. Oates constantly made outrageous claims that were believed. One was that the king would be shot by silver bullets so that the wound could not be treated. Some even believed that the French had invaded the Isle of Purbeck. It was only in 1681, that senior legal figures started to question what had gone on. Judge Scroggs declared innocent men accused of treason by Oates. In previous years, Catholics had been executed near enough on the say so of Oates and the ‘evidence’ he presented. Scroggs even declared some of the executed posthumously innocent. The fall from grace for Oates was swift. The Popish Plot showed just how easy it was to create an enemy that did not exist. Such was the fragility of society that even someone like Oates with his background, could be believed. The Popish Plot ended as quickly as it had begun, though one of the lasting legacies was that Catholics were forbidden to stand as MP’s or in the Lords for many more years. However, a number of Catholics had been executed as a result of the hysteria created.

Oates was sent to prison for perjury but was released in 1688 by William III with a weekly income of £10. For the short-term chaos he had created, it was probably not a deserved outcome. Titus Oates Titus Oates Titus Oates Titus Oates Titus Oates was born in 1649. His father was a Anabaptist preacher who had been a New Model Army chaplain during the Civil War . Educated at Caius College , Cambridge , he became an Anglican minister but was dismissed after being charged with "drunken blasphemy". He then became a chaplain on a ship but was dismissed for committing an homosexual act. In 1678 Titus Oates announced that he had discovered a Catholic plot to kill Charles II . Oates claimed that Charles was to be replaced by his Roman Catholic brother, James . He went on to argue that after James came to the throne Protestants would be massacred in their thousands. This announcement made Catholics more unpopular than ever, and eighty of them were arrested and accused of taking part in the plot.

Several were executed, including Oliver Plunkett, the Archbishop of Armagh, before it was revealed that Titus Oates had been lying. Titus Oates accused James I's secretary, Edward Coleman, of being involved in the Popish Plot. This picture of Coleman appeared on the songsheet, The Plotter Executed (1678) In 1683 Oates was imprisoned and fined £100,000 for calling James , Duke of York a traitor. In May 1685 Oates was found guilty of perjury he was pilloried, whipped and imprisoned for life. Oates was released from prison in December, 1688, as a result of the Glorious Revolution . Titus Oates died in 1705. Titus Oates in the pillory (1685) Titus Oates facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Titus Oates COPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc.

Titus Oates The English political and religious demagogue Titus Oates (1649-1705) was the chief fabricator of the Popish Plot, a spurious plan of 1678 supposedly hatched by the Jesuits to assassinate King Charles II and to enthrone his Roman Catholic brother, James. Titus Oates was born at Oakham. Though he was expelled from the Merchant Tailors' School at the age of 16, he attended Cambridge University, leaving, as his tutor noted, because "he was a great dunce, ran into debt; and, being sent away for want of money, never took a degree." Nevertheless, by 1673 Oates had somehow managed to enter the Anglican clergy. He used his office to defame a local schoolmaster, but he was denounced as a perjurer and jailed; later he escaped. After being expelled from a brief naval chaplaincy, Oates went to London, again posing as a cleric, though it is questionable whether he was ever ordained. In 1676 he joined forces with a vehement anti-Catholic clergyman, Israel Tonge.

Together they projected an elaborate plan to discredit Roman Catholicism as a treasonous international conspiracy. The two, taking advantage of the not altogether unfounded rumor that King Charles II planned to sponsor the legalization of the Roman Catholic faith, magnified it into a specific plot to destroy the Protestant Church-state constitution. Oates, feigning conversion to Roman Catholicism for the purpose of gathering evidence, attended two Jesuit missionary schools on the Continent, being quickly expelled from both. He returned to England in 1678 with fictitious evidence that convinced gullible government officials of a plot to kill the king. For 3 years, Oates, through the apparently Catholic-inspired murder of an associate, the inadvertent discovery of seditious letters, confessions wrung from intimidated witnesses, and the timidity of the king himself, was given plenary power by Parliament and had merely to accuse to convict. He caused the execution of 35 persons, including the Roman Catholic archbishop of Ireland. Oates's testimony was not discredited until the end of 1681, when it was finally realized that his evidence was hearsay and contradictory.

His power and large salary were gradually withdrawn, and when James II came to the throne in 1685, Oates was convicted of perjury, whipped, pilloried, and jailed. Though he was released after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the rest of Oates's life was marked by lawsuits, debt, and fruitless intrigue and his entrance into, and expulsion from, the Baptist Church. He died in London in July 1705. Oates exploited the traditional English fear of Roman Catholicism between 1678 and 1681, terrifying the government into giving him complete judicial power. His emotional appeal to large audiences is an early instance of the political manipulation of public opinion. Further Reading The only biography of Oates is Elaine Dakers, Titus Oates (1949), and a short study of Oates is in Thomas Seccombe, ed., Lives of Twelve Bad Men (1894). These inadequate works should be supplemented by Sir John Pollock, Popish Plot (1903); David Ogg, England in the Reign of Charles II (2 vols., 1934; rev. ed.

1962); and Francis S. Ronald, The Attempted Whig Revolution of 1678-1681 (1937). □ Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. MLA The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright The Columbia University Press Titus Oates, 1649–1705, English conspirator. An Anglican priest whose whole career was marked with intrigue and scandal, he joined forces with one Israel Tonge to invent the story of the Popish Plot of 1678. Oates, who had been briefly a convert to Roman Catholicism, claimed that there was a Jesuit-guided plan to assassinate Charles II and to hasten the succession of the Catholic James, duke of York (later James II). The account was completely fabricated, and Oates, examined by the privy council, would perhaps have been immediately exposed had not treasonous letters from Edward Coleman, secretary of the duchess of York, to the French Jesuit, François La Chaise, been discovered as a result of his accusations.

The unexplained death of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, the judge to whom Tonge and Oates first told their story, was attributed without evidence to the Catholics, and three innocent men were hanged for it. A frenzy of anti-Catholic hatred swept through England, resulting in the judicial murder of a number of Roman Catholic peers and commoners and in the arrest and persecution of many others. Oates enjoyed temporary eminence and even accused Queen Catherine of plotting to poison the king. In 1685, Oates was convicted of perjury, severely flogged, and imprisoned. Under William III he was released and pensioned. See J. Kenyon, The Popish Plot (1972). Cite this article The Oxford Companion to British History © The Oxford Companion to British History 2002, originally published by Oxford University Press 2002. Oates, Titus (1649–1705). Perjurer and fabricator of the ‘Popish plot’ . Despite his status as an Anglican priest, Oates's penchant was for lies and petty crime.

Recognizing by the mid-1670s that the surest way to advancement was to feed the public taste for catholic scare-mongering, he wormed his way into catholic counsels, learning their secrets, and became a member of the faith himself in 1677. In 1678, he unveiled to the government his highly wrought tale of a conspiracy to overturn the protestant establishment for which corroborative evidence soon came to light. A wave of hysteria swept the country, the political impact of which was the Exclusion crisis , and Oates's accusations resulted in the execution of 35, including 9 Jesuit priests. From 1681, however, his testimony was increasingly discredited and he lost the court's protection. Tried in 1685 for perjury and condemned to life imprisonment, he was pardoned in 1689.

Andrew Hanham Titus Oates Facts LINK / CITE ADD TO WORD LIST Titus Oates Facts The English political and religious demagogue Titus Oates (1649-1705) was the chief fabricator of the Popish Plot, a spurious plan of 1678 supposedly hatched by the Jesuits to assassinate King Charles II and to enthrone his Roman Catholic brother, James. Titus Oates was born at Oakham. Though he was expelled from the Merchant Tailors' School at the age of 16, he attended Cambridge University, leaving, as his tutor noted, because "he was a great dunce, ran into debt; and, being sent away for want of money, never took a degree." Nevertheless, by 1673 Oates had somehow managed to enter the Anglican clergy. He used his office to defame a local schoolmaster, but he was denounced as a perjurer and jailed; later he escaped. After being expelled from a brief naval chaplaincy, Oates went to London, again posing as a cleric, though it is questionable whether he was ever ordained.

In 1676 he joined forces with a vehement anti-Catholic clergyman, Israel Tonge. Together they projected an elaborate plan to discredit Roman Catholicism as a treasonous international conspiracy. The two, taking advantage of the not altogether unfounded rumor that King Charles II planned to sponsor the legalization of the Roman Catholic faith, magnified it into a specific plot to destroy the Protestant Church-state constitution. Oates, feigning conversion to Roman Catholicism for the purpose of gathering evidence, attended two Jesuit missionary schools on the Continent, being quickly expelled from both. He returned to England in 1678 with fictitious evidence that convinced gullible government officials of a plot to kill the king. For 3 years, Oates, through the apparently Catholic-inspired murder of an associate, the inadvertent discovery of seditious letters, confessions wrung from intimidated witnesses, and the timidity of the king himself, was given plenary power by Parliament and had merely to accuse to convict. He caused the execution of 35 persons, including the Roman Catholic archbishop of Ireland. Oates's testimony was not discredited until the end of 1681, when it was finally realized that his evidence was hearsay and contradictory.

His power and large salary were gradually withdrawn, and when James II came to the throne in 1685, Oates was convicted of perjury, whipped, pilloried, and jailed. Though he was released after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the rest of Oates's life was marked by lawsuits, debt, and fruitless intrigue and his entrance into, and expulsion from, the Baptist Church. He died in London in July 1705. Oates exploited the traditional English fear of Roman Catholicism between 1678 and 1681, terrifying the government into giving him complete judicial power. His emotional appeal to large audiences is an early instance of the political manipulation of public opinion. Further Reading on Titus Oates The only biography of Oates is Elaine Dakers, Titus Oates (1949), and a short study of Oates is in Thomas Seccombe, ed., Lives of Twelve Bad Men (1894). These inadequate works should be supplemented by Sir John Pollock, Popish Plot (1903); David Ogg, England in the Reign of Charles II (2 vols., 1934; rev. ed.

1962); and Francis S. Ronald, The Attempted Whig Revolution of 1678-1681 (1937). Titus Oates - Biography Titus Oates Bith Date: September 15, 1649 Death Date: July 12, 1705 Place of Birth: Oakham, England Nationality: English Gender: Male Occupations: religious demagogue The English political religious demagogue Titus Oates (1649-1705) was the chief fabricator of the Popish Plot, a spurious plan of 1678 supposedly hatched by the Jesuits to assassinate King Charles II and to enthrone his Roman Catholic brother, James. Titus Oates was born at Oakham. Though he was expelled from the Merchant Tailors' School at the age of 16, he attended Cambridge University, leaving, as his tutor noted, because "he was a great dunce, ran into debt; and, being sent away for want of money, never took a degree." Nevertheless, by 1673 Oates had somehow managed to enter the Anglican clergy.

He used his office to defame a local schoolmaster, but he was denounced as a perjurer and jailed; later he escaped. After being expelled from a brief naval chaplaincy, Oates went to London, again posing as a cleric, though it is questionable whether he was ever ordained. In 1676 he joined forces with a vehement anti-Catholic clergyman, Israel Tonge. Together they projected an elaborate plan to discredit Roman Catholicism as a treasonous international conspiracy. The two, taking advantage of the not altogether unfounded rumor that King Charles II planned to sponsor the legalization of the Roman Catholic faith, magnified it into a specific plot to destroy the Protestant Church-state constitution. Oates, feigning conversion to Roman Catholicism for the purpose of gathering evidence, attended two Jesuit missionary schools on the Continent, being quickly expelled from both. He returned to England in 1678 with fictitious evidence that convinced gullible government officials of a plot to kill the king.

For 3 years, Oates, through the apparently Catholic-inspired murder of an associate, the inadvertent discovery of seditious letters, confessions wrung from intimidated witnesses, and the timidity of the king himself, was given plenary power by Parliament and had merely to accuse to convict. He caused the execution of 35 People, including the Roman Catholic archbishop of Ireland. Oates's testimony was not discredited until the end of 1681, when it was finally realized that his evidence was hearsay and contradictory. His power and large salary were gradually withdrawn, and when James II came to the throne in 1685, Oates was convicted of perjury, whipped, pilloried, and jailed. Though he was released after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the rest of Oates's life was marked by lawsuits, debt, and fruitless intrigue and his entrance into, and expulsion from, the Baptist Church. He died in London in July 1705. Oates exploited the traditional English fear of Roman Catholicism between 1678 and 1681, terrifying the government into giving him complete judicial power.

His emotional appeal to large audiences is an early instance of the political manipulation of public opinion. Further Reading The only biography of Oates is Elaine Dakers, Titus Oates (1949), and a short study of Oates is in Thomas Seccombe, ed., Lives of Twelve Bad Men (1894). These inadequate works should be supplemented by Sir John Pollock, Popish Plot (1903); David Ogg, England in the Reign of Charles II (2 vols., 1934; rev. ed. 1962); and Francis S. Ronald, The Attempted Whig Revolution of 1678-1681 (1937). Need a custom written paper? Let our professional writers save your time. Not a member yet? I The Popish Plot 1678 Was a hoax made up by Titus Oates - HIST - 1003 View Full Document • James is made the official succession II. The Exclusion Crisis ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ II.

James II • 1685: Charles II dies of a stroke • James was crowned King James II • James used his power to favor Catholics o This was really unpopular with most English people o Within two years, James had alienated most of his political supporters • 1688: James wife had a son, and now he had a male heir o worried people that Englad would have a line of Catholic Kings o caused politicians to look for another ruler. VI.

The Glorious Revolution: Insurance against Absolutism • 1688: Parliament asked William of Orange to save England from the Catholic threat o William the most prominent Protestant ruler in Europe o He was married to James’ oldest daughter, Mary Stuart • December 1688: William sailed to England with an army to fight James • James fled to France, which leaves Parliament free to name a new monarch • 1689: William III and Mary III crowned joint soverigns o William ruled 1689-1702 o Mary r • The right to rule was granted to William and Mary by Parliament o Made Parliament the greater authority in England • William and Mary had to sign: • Bill of Rights (1689) o No un-parliamentary taxation o No standing army o No interference in elections by the king o Free speech in Parliament • Act of Tolerance 1689 o Freedom of Religion for Protestants (not Catholics) • Triennial Act 1694 • The ideas contained in the Bill of Rights become the basis for modern political and civil liberites • The Glorious Revolution subjugated the English monarchy to Parliament’s authority • This guaranteed that absolutism would not take hold in England

 Important people and terms Absolutism Elizabeth I (r.

1558-1603) Puritan The gunpowder plot Guy Fawkes Charles I (r. 1625-1649) The personal rule William Laud Henrietta Maria Arminians The national Covenant Short parliament Long parliament This preview has intentionally blurred sections. Sign up to view the full version. titus oates | Pocket Book Posted in History , Politics , Secret Societies , tagged charles II , duke of monmouth , exclusion crisis , levellers , lord shaftesbury , mike walker , popish plot , rye house plot , samuel johnson , thomas dangerfield , titus oates , whigs on 31 August 2014 | 1 Comment » Oates’ false accusations in 1678 led to the execution of at least 15 innocent men. Although initially he found favour with Parliament, he was arrested in 1681 for sedition. In 1685, with James II on the throne he was retried and imprisoned for life for perjury, and to be whipped through the streets of London for five days a year.

This is a contemporary engraving of Oates in the pillory prior to his being paraded through London. I was listening recently to an episode of the seven part chronicle of the Stuart dynasty on BBC Radio 4 written by radio dramatist Mike Walker, when Charles II (played by Pip Torrens) refers to Titus Oates as being a member of the Green Ribbon Club. Oates was the fabricator of the ‘Popish Plot’ in 1678, a supposed conspiracy by Catholic Jesuit priests to kill the king which caused a wave of anti-Catholic feeling to sweep across the nation. Following the death of Oliver Cromwell in 1658, the English parliament proclaimed Charles II to be king in 1660, the Restoration. Although Charles favoured a policy of religious tolerance, parliament enacted several laws designed to secure the dominance of the re-established Church of England. In 1672, Charles attempted to suspend all penal laws against Catholics and other religious dissenters, but Parliament opposed this and forced Charles to agree to laws that forced public officials to receive the sacrament prescribed by the Anglican church and to denounce certain teachings of the Catholic Church.

The 1670s were beset by suspicion and accusation about the religious affiliation of individuals, and plotting and counter-plotting by political opponents, and it was during this decade, that the Green Ribbon Club came into being. The Green Ribbon Club was one of the earliest of the loosely combined associations which met from time to time in London taverns or coffee-houses for political purposes in the 17th century. The ‘Green Ribbon” was the badge of The Levellers in the English Civil Wars, a political movement which emphasised popular sovereignty, extended suffrage (voting rights), equality before the law, and religious tolerance. One of the taverns in which they met was The Rosemary Branch in Islington which got its name from the sprigs of rosemary that Levellers would wear in their hats as a sign of identification. The meeting place (marked in yellow) of the Green Ribbon Club in the King’s Head tavern on the corner of Chancery Lane and Fleet Street in London (click to enlarge) The club was likely founded around 1675 and it met in the King’s Head tavern in Fleet Street in London, and was first known as the King’s Head Club.

Many of its members had fought in the civil war and were hostile to the court of politicians holding power in London. They were in the habit of wearing a bow or bob of green ribbon in their hats which was used for mutual recognition in street brawls. About 1679, the name of the club was changed to the Green Ribbon Club. Anthony Ashley-Cooper, the 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, a prominent politician and one of the founders of the Whig Party which opposed an absolute monarchy, may have been the President of the Green Ribbon Club. Though Shaftesbury was one of twelve members of Parliament who invited Charles II to return to England, he later argued in favour of frequent parliaments and argued that the nation needed protection from the potential Roman Catholic successor to King Charles II, his brother and heir presumptive, James, Duke of York. James was suspected of being pro-French and of having designs on becoming an absolute monarch. The Green Ribbon Club actively promoted the Exclusion Bill which sought to exclude James from the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland. The Tories were opposed to the bill and ‘Whig’ became a term of abuse for those who supported it.

The fervent Tory Samuel Johnson often joked that ‘the first Whig was the Devil’. Though the bill was passed by Parliament in 1679, Charles II was forced to dissolve Parliament several times to prevent the bill coming into law. Ultimately however the succession was not altered, with James becoming king on the death of Charles II in 1685. The ‘Exclusion Crisis’ nevertheless contributed to the development of the English two-party system. This is a depiction by William Hogarth of a street celebration in 1653 outside the King’s Head tavern in Fleet Street applauding the dissolution of the Rump Parliament by Oliver Cromwell. This possibly fictitious scene likely resembles the Green Ribbon Club’s pope-burning processions which took place outside the King’s Head tavern in 1680 and 1681. The Green Ribbon Club served both as a debating society and an intelligence network for the Whig faction spreading scandal and sedition throughout London. Bills under discussion in Parliament were debated by the members over their tobacco and ale, with the latest news from Westminster or the city brought in by an endless stream of supporters.

The leader of the King’s government, Lord Danby, an opponent of all toleration, issued a proclamation, later withdrawn, for the suppression of coffee-houses because of the ‘defamation of His Majesty’s Government’ which took place in them. Who were the members of the club? In 1979, Thomas Dangerfield , another conspirator and perjurer like Titus Oates, supplied the King with a list of forty-eight members of the Green Ribbon Club. As well as Shaftesbury, it included the Duke of Monmouth (an illegitimate son of Charles II who later led the unsuccessful rebellion to depose his uncle, then James II) and statesmen like Halifax, Shaftesbury, Buckingham, Macclesfield, Cavendish, and Bedford; together with former Cromwellian supporters like Lord Falconbridge, John Claypole and Henry Ireton (two sons-in-law and a grandson of Thomas Cromwell); and various profligates and scoundrels of the type of Oates. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Search for: titus oates : definition of titus oates and synonyms of titus oates (English) 7 External links Early life Titus Oates was born in Oakham . His father, Samuel, was the director of Marsham in Norfolk [1] before becoming an Anabaptist during the Puritan Revolution [2] and rejoining the Church of England at the Restoration . [3] Oates was educated at Merchant Taylors' School , Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge , and St John's College, Cambridge . [4] Known as a less than astute student, he was ejected from both colleges. [5] [6] A few months later, he became an Anglican priest and Vicar of the parish of Bobbing in Kent . During this time Oates was charged with perjury having accused a schoolmaster in Hastings of sodomy . Oates was put in jail, but escaped and fled to London . [3] In 1677 he got himself appointed as a chaplain of the ship Adventurer in the English navy .

He was soon accused of buggery (i.e., sodomy, which was a capital offence in England at the time) and spared only because of his clergyman's status. After the navy he joined the household of the Catholic Duke of Norfolk as an Anglican chaplain. On Ash Wednesday in 1677 he was received into the Catholic Church . [7] Oddly, at the same time Oates agreed to co-author a series of anti-Catholic pamphlets with Israel Tonge , whom he had met through his father Samuel, who had once more reverted to the Baptist doctrine. [8] He is described by Dryden in Absalom and Achitophel thus— [9] “ Sunk were his eyes, his voice was harsh and loud, Sure signs he neither choleric was nor proud : His long chin proved his wit, his saint-like grace A church vermilion and a Moses’ face. ” Contact with the Jesuits Oates was involved with the Jesuit houses of St. Omer (in France ) and the Royal English College at Valladolid , Spain (like many diocesan seminaries of the day, this was a Jesuit-run institution).

Oates was admitted to the course in Valladolid by the support of Richard Strange , despite a lack of basic competence in Latin . [7] He later claimed, falsely, that he had become a Catholic Doctor of Divinity . Thomas Whitbread took a much firmer line with Oates than had Strange and, in June 1678, expelled him from St. Omer. [10] When he returned to London, he rekindled his friendship with Israel Tonge. Oates explained that he had pretended to become a Catholic to learn about the secrets of the Jesuits and that, before leaving, he had heard about a planned Jesuit meeting in London . The Fabricated Popish Plot Main article: Popish Plot Oates and Tonge wrote a lengthy manuscript that accused the Catholic Church authorities in Britain of approving an assassination of Charles II. The Jesuits were supposedly to carry out the task. In August 1678, King Charles was warned of this alleged plot against his life by the chemist Christopher Kirkby, and later by Tonge.

Charles was unimpressed, but handed the matter over to one of his ministers, Thomas Osborne, the Earl of Danby ; Osborne was more willing to listen and was introduced to Oates by Tonge. Dr Oates discovers the plot The King's Council questioned Oates. On 28 September Oates made 43 allegations against various members of Catholic religious orders — including 541 Jesuits — and numerous Catholic nobles. He accused Sir George Wakeman , the Queen's physician, and Edward Colman , the secretary to Mary of Modena who was the Duchess of York , of planning to assassinate Charles. Although Oates may have selected the names randomly, or with the help of the Earl of Danby, Colman was found to have corresponded with a French Jesuit, which condemned him. Wakeman was later acquitted. Others Oates accused included Dr William Fogarty , Archbishop Peter Talbot of Dublin , Samuel Pepys MP , and Lord Belasyse . With the help of Danby the list grew to 81 accusations. Oates was given a squad of soldiers and he began to round up Jesuits, including those who had helped him in the past.

On 6 September 1678, Oates and Tonge approached an Anglican magistrate, Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey . On 12 October, Godrey disappeared and five days later his dead body was found in a ditch at Primrose Hill ; he had been strangled and run through with his own sword. In September Oates and Tonge had sworn an affidavit in front of Godfrey detailing their accusations. Oates exploited this incident to launch a public campaign against the " Papists " and alleged that murder of Godfrey had been the work of the Jesuits. On 24 November 1678, Oates claimed the Queen was working with the King's physician to poison the King, and Oates enlisted the aid of "Captain" William Bedloe , who was ready to say anything for money. The King personally interrogated Oates, caught him out in a number of inaccuracies and lies, and ordered his arrest. However, a few days later, with the threat of a constitutional crisis , Parliament forced the release of Oates, who soon received a state apartment in Whitehall and an annual allowance of £1,200. Oates was heaped with praise.

He asked the College of Arms to check his lineage and produce a coat of arms for him and subsequently received the arms of a family that had died out. There were even rumours that Oates was to be married to a daughter of the Earl of Shaftsbury . After nearly three years and the execution of at least 15 innocent men, opinion began to turn against Oates. The last high-profile victim of the climate of suspicion was Oliver Plunkett , Archbishop of Armagh , who was executed on 1 July 1681. William Scroggs , the Lord Chief Justice of England , began to declare more people innocent, as he had done in the Wakeman trial, and a backlash took place. Aftermath On 31 August 1681, Oates was told to leave his apartments in Whitehall , but remained undeterred and even denounced the King, the Duke of York, and just about anyone[ who? ] he regarded as an opponent. He was arrested for sedition , sentenced to a fine of £100,000 and thrown into prison.

Engraving of a pilloried Titus Oates When James II acceded to the throne in 1685, he had Oates retried and sentenced for perjury to be stripped of clerical dress, imprisoned for life and to be "whipped through the streets of London five days a year for the remainder of his life." [11] Oates was taken out of his cell wearing a hat with the text "Titus Oates, convicted upon full evidence of two horrid perjuries" and put into the pillory at the gate of Westminster Hall (now New Palace Yard ) where passers-by pelted him with eggs. The next day he was pilloried in London and the third day was stripped, tied to a cart, and whipped from Aldgate to Newgate . The next day, the whipping resumed. The judge was Judge Jeffreys who stated that Oates was a "shame to mankind". Oates spent the next three years in prison. In 1689, upon the accession of William of Orange and Mary , he was pardoned and granted a pension of £260 a year, but his reputation did not recover.

The pension was later suspended, but in 1698 was restored and increased to £300 a year. Oates died on 12 or 13 July 1705. References to Oates in later history During the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 , Douglas-supporting newspapers called Lincoln a coward, "so frightened of Douglas that he sat...with...teeth chattering." One newspaper called Lincoln a "Modern Titus Oates", implying that Lincoln was an imposter. [12] The Antarctic explorer and British Army Captain Lawrence Oates was referred to by comrades as 'Titus Oates' in reference to his 17th century namesake. The severity of the punishment passed upon Oates led to the prohibition of " cruel and unusual punishment ", and excessive bail, in the 1689 Bill of Rights ; this was reflected in the 1791 Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. References ^ Pollock, John (1903). The Popish Plot: a study in the history of the reign of Charles II. London: Duckworth and Co.; p. 3.

^ Pollock, John p.5 Titus Oates T Titus Oates Titus Oates (15 September 1649 – 12/13 July 1705) was a 17th-century perjurer who fabricated the "Popish Plot", a supposed Catholic conspiracy to kill King Charles II. Early life Titus Oates was born in Oakham. His father, Samuel, was the rector of Marsham in Norfolk before becoming an Anabaptist during the Puritan Revolution and rejoining the Church of England at the Restoration. Titus was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and St John's College, Cambridge. Known as a less than astute student, he was ejected from both colleges. A few months later, he became an Anglican priest and Vicar of the parish of Bobbing in Kent. During this time Oates was charged with perjury having accused a schoolmaster in Hastings of sodomy . Oates was put in jail, but escaped and fled to London . In 1677 he got himself appointed as a chaplain of the ship Adventurer in the English navy.

He was soon accused of buggery (i.e., sodomy, which was a capital offence in England at the time) and spared only because of his clergyman's status. After the navy he joined the household of the Catholic Duke of Norfolk as an Anglican chaplain. On Ash Wednesday, 1677 he was received into the Catholic church. At the same time Titus agreed to co-author a series of anti-Catholic pamphlets with Israel Tonge, whom he had met through his father Samuel, who had once more reverted to the Baptist doctrine. He is described by Dryden in Absolam & Achitophel thus- "Sunk were his eyes, his voice was harsh and loud, Sure signs he neither choleric was nor proud : His long chin proved his wit, his saint-like grace A church vermilion and a Moses' face." Contact with the Jesuits Oates was involved with the Jesuit houses of St. Omer (in France ) and the Royal English College at Valladolid, Spain (like many diocesan seminaries of the day, this was a Jesuit-run institution).

Oates was admitted to the course in Valladolid by the support of Richard Strange, despite a lack of basic competence in Latin. He later claimed, falsely, that he had become a Catholic doctor of Divinity. Thomas Whitbread took a much firmer line with Oates than Strange had, and in June 1678 expelled him from St. Omer. When he returned to London, he rekindled his friendship with Israel Tonge. Oates explained that he had pretended to become a Catholic to learn about the secrets of the Jesuits and that, before leaving, he had heard about a planned Jesuit meeting in London. The Popish Plot Oates and Tonge wrote a lengthy manuscript that accused the Roman Catholic Church of approving an assassination of Charles II. The Jesuits in England were to carry out the task. In August 1678, King Charles was warned of this supposed plot against his life by the chemist Christopher Kirkby, and later by Tonge. The king was unimpressed but handed the matter over to his minister Earl of Danby, who was more willing to listen, and who was introduced to Oates by Tonge. The King's Council interrogated Oates.

On 28 September Oates made 43 allegations against various members of Catholic religious orders — including 541 Jesuits — and numerous Catholic nobles. He accused Sir George Wakeman, the queen's physician, and Edward Colman, the secretary to the Duchess of York (Mary of Modena), of planning to assassinate the king. Although Oates probably selected the names randomly or with the help of the Earl of Danby, Coleman was found to have corresponded with a French Jesuit, which condemned him. Wakeman was later acquitted. Others Oates accused included Dr William Fogarty, Archbishop Peter Talbot of Dublin , Samuel Pepys , and Lord Belasyse. With the help of the Earl of Danby the list grew to 81 accusations. Oates was given a squad of soldiers and he began to round up Jesuits, including those who had helped him in the past. On 6 September 1678, Oates and Tonge approached an Anglican magistrate. On 12 October, Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, an Anglican magistrate, disappeared and was found dead five days later in a ditch at Primrose Hill. He had been strangled and run through with his own sword.

In September Oates and Tonge had sworn an affidavit in front of Godfrey detailing their accusations. Oates exploited this incident to launch a public campaign against the " Papists " and alleged that this murder had been the work of the Jesuits. On 24 November, Oates claimed the Queen was working with the King's physician to poison the King, and Oates enlisted the aid of "Captain" William Bedloe, who was ready to say anything for money. The King personally interrogated Oates, caught him out in a number of inaccuracies and lies, and ordered his arrest. However, a couple of days later, Parliament forced Oates' release with the threat of constitutional crisis. Oates soon received a state apartment in Whitehall and an annual allowance of £1,200. Oates was heaped with praise. He asked the College of Arms to check his lineage and produce a coat of arms for him. They gave him the arms of a family that had died out. There were even rumours that Oates was to be married to a daughter of the Earl of Shaftesbury.

After nearly three years and the executions of at least 15 men who are now thought to be innocent of the Plot, opinion began to turn against Oates. The last high-profile victim of the climate of suspicion was Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh, who was executed on 1 July 1681. Judge William Scroggs began to declare more people innocent, as he had done in the Wakeman trial, and a backlash took place. Aftermath On 31 August 1681, Oates was told to leave his apartments in Whitehall, but remained undeterred and denounced the King, the Duke of York, and just about anyone he regarded as an opponent. He was arrested for sedition , sentenced to a fine of £100,000 and thrown into prison. When James II acceded to the throne, he had a score to settle. He had Oates retried and sentenced for perjury to annual pillory , loss of clerical dress, and imprisonment for life.

Oates was taken out of his cell wearing a hat with the text "Titus Oates, convicted upon full evidence of two horrid perjuries" and put into the pillory at the gate of Westminster Hall (now New Palace Yard) where passers-by pelted him with eggs. The next day he was pilloried in London and a third day was stripped, tied to a cart, and whipped from Aldgate to Newgate . The next day, the whipping resumed. The judge was Judge Jeffreys who stated that Oates was a "shame to mankind". Oates spent the next three years in prison. At the accession of William of Orange and Mary in 1688, he was pardoned and granted a pension of £5 a week but his reputation did not significantly recover. The pension was later suspended, but in 1698 was restored and increased to £300 a year. Titus Oates died on 12 July or 13 July 1705. References to Oates in later history During the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, Douglas-supporting newspapers called Lincoln a coward, "so frightened of Douglas that he sat . . with . .

teeth chattering." One newspaper called Lincoln a "Modern Titus Oates", implying that Lincoln was an imposter. (Wikipedia)

Question: Titus Oates was a ringleader of the Popish plot to kill which English King in 1678?
Answer: Charles II